VLC for Windows 8 finally arrives, bringing MKV and subtitle support to tablets

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At long last, the Windows 8 Metro environment has a decent media player that can play MKV files: VLC for Windows 8! VLC Media Player Beta for Windows 8 is a complete reimagining of VLC for Microsoft’s touch-oriented Metro interface, but still with most of the functionality that makes the Desktop version of VLC so awesome. VLC for Windows 8 includes support for the MKV container format, the H.264 codec (along with its various containers/file formats), and almost every other codec under the sun (just like VLC on the Desktop). Perhaps most importantly, VLC for Windows 8 includes the same flawless support for captioning and subtitles. Unfortunately for Surface 2 owners, VLC for Windows 8 doesn’t yet support the ARM architecture — but the developers say that ARM support is coming eventually.

Way back in November 2012, VideoLAN (the group behind VLC) launched a Kickstarter project to fund the creation of Metro version of VLC. The Kickstarter went on to successfully raise around $80,000 — and now, just over a year later, VLC for Windows 8 has been released to the Metro app store. Being a beta release, there are some bugs, and it’s not 100% stable, but it’s still very usable. There’s no ARM support yet, but the original Kickstarter said there would be a “subsequent release” that adds it. VLC hasn’t made a full list of supported file formats/codecs available, but it played all of the normal video files we threw at it (MP4, MKV, MOV, AVI, etc.) It also worked with a range of subtitle files, including CC, SUB, and VSUB. The app store says it should support FLAC audio playback, but it didn’t work for us; MP3 worked just fine, though.

VLC for Windows 8: Where’s my option to open a music file?

In terms of usability, VLC for Windows 8 is a bit of a mixed bag. It’s fairly unpleasant to use with a mouse and keyboard. It has some interesting new views for External Storage and Media Servers, but the inability to right click anything, or change any settings. There’s no double-click-to-full-screen (or minimize), because Metro doesn’t really allow for that (but split screening works just fine). Normal shortcuts like space (pause/play) and escape (exit full screen) don’t work. You can’t drag files into it from the Desktop, and the built-in file browser thing only shows video files.

In short, VLC for Windows 8 is good if you have an x86 Windows 8 tablet, and you really need to play an MKV or watch a movie with subtitles. If you were hoping that Windows 8.1 Update , with its tweaks for non-touch users, plus VLC for Windows 8, would give mouse-and-keyboard users a bona fide reason to stay within the Metro interface… I’m afraid that just isn’t the case. Watching downloaded movies and TV shows is a very valid use for tablets, however — and now that there’s a good MKV media player for Metro, maybe Windows 8 tablet sales will finally take off?

So the version of windows for tablets didn’t vlc player?
Curious were there any other alternatives? I know for android MX player works great, I don’t know if its also available for windows 8 tablets?

Cookies

The normal VLC Player works fine for pretty much all Windows 8 devices, including tablets.

It just wasn’t touch optimized.

This one is the touch-enabled Metro variant.

Although, what I’m really waiting for is a Windows RT release.

devogod

When they say ‘for tablets’ they’re generally referring to surface RT tablets because they cannot run the regular x86 version of vlc. Before this app i don’t think RT users could play mkv files at all, so this is great news to at least a dozen people.

TruePatriot

It just said not for arm yet

devogod

Oh. You’re right im not sure how i missed that when i read it. I guess that means this app and article make little sense to me then because what it essentially says is now you can run vlc on a platform thay could already run the existing version of vlc. What they need is versions for rt and wp8 for those of us with no current options.

Justin Downer

i was wondering what the article meant i was like i’m using VLC player right now on 8 and then i found out it was the part of 8 no body used

Stacey Bright

I’m not one to usually pick at misleading headlines, but seriously come on. Clearly you could always run vlc in windows 8. As far as the reference to tablets, without arm support, means the surface pros and any other x86 derivatives that once again could already run it. The lack of a metro based variant seems like an awfully small point.

meddle0ne

It’s in beta so it can’t be in the store. Therefore, can’t be run on RT.

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